One of my favorite things about spring is the many delicious foods it brings. Don’t get wrong I love my fall fruits and veg (apples, pumpkins, root veg, etc.) but there is something so refreshing about spring produce!! Probably has a lot to do with where I live. Maybe if I lived in a warmer climate I wouldn’t get so excited seasonal foods or about the seasons changing but there is something magical in the air when the snow has melted, days get warmer, a smell of the BBQs in the breeze at dinner time and seeing the kids out playing with neighbors they haven’t seen much of over the winter months. It makes the winters not seem so bad.
I am a big fan of a big salad bowl lunch or dinner. It’s pretty much what I have throughout the spring and summer months. I don’t really have a favorite or even one that I do on a regular basis. I am always changing it up based on what I have on hand or what I am craving. I find my cravings (or what my body needs) changes depending on the season, … [Read more...]

Smoothies are a staple in our house. I love them because they are usually vegan milk based, a beverage one of my daughters will otherwise refuse to drink, and are filled with fresh or frozen fruit and enhanced by a few nutritional powerhouses likes greens, flax, chia, probiotics, plant-based protein, omega-3s and they’re naturally sweetened. We often make them as a dessert with lots of frozen fruit and ice so they are more ice-cream like than a drink and we make enough that the leftovers become the kids morning smoothies. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE morning smoothies! Not only for myself but for the kids it’s perfect because they sip (or often guzzle) them while we prep the rest of breakfast and it provides them with a bunch of yummy nutrients and the fiber helps keep them full through their busy mornings. Smoothies are also a great hydration tool. I have one twin that loves her glass of almond milk every morning, but the other kiddie barely drinks a thing unless it’s sweet. While she … [Read more...]

Wintertime is sometimes tough in the fruit department with less selection than usual. My kids and I love summer fruit (berries, stone fruit, local melons) and in winter the fruit staples at our house are organic apples, oranges, clementines or mandarins, bananas and if we are lucky the occasional box of organic strawberries. In the smoothie department I have to be a little more creative but get to throw in fresh fruits that the might not otherwise eat on their own (kiwis, pears, etc.). Did I mention my kids can be picky?
Plus my kiddies are now at the age where their front teeth are wiggly, making hard fruit like apples harder to eat. Smoothies to the rescue! I make a big bottle of smoothies a few times a week so we have some on hand to drink the in morning or after school. Find they are great for after school when they are sooooo starving. It buys me 5 minutes while I get them unpacked and prep a “real” snack for them. It delivers a good mix of fruit, protein, fats and calcium. … [Read more...]

Sardines, what can I say, they were not top on my list as a favorite food growing up. I somehow always linked sardines to Popeye the sailor cartoon…even though I know that his main thing was spinach. I have no idea why I link him to Sardines!! Regardless, this fish was not one that I remember seeing at our local markets, nor did I know much about them.
I think I remember seeing them in the canned fish aisle but I classed them with anchovies whose smell was a little overpowering for my younger self. When I travelled as a teenager, I had seen them on the menus in the south of France and Italy but I hadn’t been adventurous enough to try them on my own. It wasn’t until one of French cousins prepared a quick dinner for us on a busy night that I got to try sardines in a tomato sauce over angel hair pasta. At first I was ready to pick them out of my noodles and tell her “I don’t eat these” but I imagined my grandmother looking over my shoulder, encouraging me to give it a little … [Read more...]